News, Tips & Bargains : Mexico Puts Mayan Art on Display

Long overshadowed by the Aztecs, the more richly cultured Mayan people are finally getting their due with the most extensive exhibition of Mayan art ever assembled.

In the bargain, visitors to the “Los Mayas” exhibition will discover one of Mexico City’s architectural gems, the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, where the show is being staged until Dec. 30.

The collection of 540 artworks is from 40 museums in Mexico and five Central American countries embracing the Mayan civilization, which reached its height from AD 250 to 900. The pieces range from stately stone columns to delicate jade funeral masks.

The exhibition opened here last month after a seven-month run in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, where it drew more than 700,000 visitors. (In the Mexico City show, a drawback for some is that the too-small explanatory plaques are in Spanish only. Audio headset tours in English can be rented.)

The exhibition also shows off the Colegio de San Ildefonso, built by the Jesuits in 1588 and converted to a museum in 1992 after many generations of housing a preparatory school. Located a block north of the central Zocalo square, at Justo Sierra 16 in the Centro Historico, the deftly restored museum forms part of what many architects regard as the finest colonial neighborhood in Latin America.

The Colegio de San Ildefonso is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $2.50. Telephone 011-52-5-789-2505 or 011-52-5-702-3254.